“This… do I really need to explain this question? At our age, coming to this kind of preparatory class to study is obviously for…”
Sylvia slowly lowered her head, her eyes looking exactly like a wronged little wife. She was just about to finish her sentence when the purple-haired jellyfish-headed big sister at her side suddenly stopped her!
“Of course, it’s for getting a diploma! Ahahaha… Well, Sylvia, you just be quiet and let the mature big sister me handle this!”
Uh…
This sudden shift in topic is a bit too obvious, isn’t it?
Keti helplessly twitched the corner of her mouth, already feeling that the credibility of what this purple-haired jellyfish-headed big sister was saying had just dropped by at least several dozen percentage points.
It was just a shame—the girl was still a bit too soft-hearted. Being willing to listen to explanations already meant she half believed it.
But… a diploma?
“Mm… why are you two suddenly making such a big deal out of this? Before, didn’t you even make fun of Alice’s graduation certificate, and she ended up secretly wiping her tears in her room all day?”
Keti pinched her chin curiously, bringing up old events. This instantly made Layla cough awkwardly a couple of times. Only after a moment did she wave her hand and say,
“Times have changed, Keti! After you left, it was only then that I realized there are so many things I’m not good at! I used to push all these things onto you, ugh…”
“That really isn’t what a qualified Mother-type Girlfriend Role should do. That’s why I decided to come to school with Sylvia and study harder, so that when you come back to the team in the future, I’ll be able to take care of you completely~”
Why does that sound like you’re going to eat me up!
Keti wiped the cold sweat off her forehead and automatically ignored those weird words like ‘Mom’ and ‘Mother-type Girlfriend Role.’ The biggest problem was—
“Even if you wanted to study, there’s no reason to come to the first-year preparatory class, right?! You’ve both already chosen your careers, and as for theory—you must have had that drilled into you in the monastery and the Fairy Forest, right?”
“Just like in class today, you didn’t need to listen to anything I said at all… How are you going to learn anything like this…?”
The silver-haired beauty scratched her hair in frustration. Besides, you were staring at my face all throughout class—it’s a lot of pressure for me too, okay?
“Yahaha, well, um…”
Layla was lost in thought for a moment. After a while, she coughed awkwardly twice, then said, “Ahem, well, that’s not entirely true.”
“Actually… the main reason we came to Lidel Magic Academy is for the diploma, because there’s something we really want to do that requires a graduation certificate from a magic academy.”
“That’s why we figured out a way to come here and get enough academic credits for a year, haha. The upper-year classes are just too busy, so we chose the preparatory class. Plus, we wanted to take your class, Keti, and that’s…”
“Uh… so that’s how it is?”
Keti nodded thoughtfully. Well, when you put it that way, it actually makes sense. They really just came to get a diploma? Where did Layla and the others find their connections for this?
By the way, would this be considered… diploma-fishing? Like ‘water-magic’—fishing for a magic academy diploma…
“Hoo…”
Seeing that she had successfully fooled Keti, Layla immediately let out a breath of relief. After a while, she quickly spoke up again:
“Alright, alright, let’s leave this for later. Keti, did you have something else you wanted to ask us about just now? Because Mom noticed… you were discussing something with that Mr. Lynn at the classroom door for quite a while.”
“Don’t, don’t call me that weird name, and don’t use such weird self-references, Layla-ne… Just call me Keti, that’s fine.”
Keti sighed helplessly.
Layla seemed to reflect for a moment, “Mm, mm, then I’ll call you… Keti-chan~ But ‘Keti’ just feels so natural to say, and… hiss, could it be, Keti-chan prefers Elder Sister-type Roles rather than Mother-type? I can try that too!”
“Stop teasing me, ugh—”
She’s hopeless, absolutely hopeless. She isn’t reflecting at all!
The silver-haired beauty lifted her head, tears welling up as if she had completely given up resisting. After a moment, she could only take a deep breath and say:
“Actually, I really do need your help. It’s about… that Newcomer Competition Mr. Lynn mentioned at the class meeting just now.”
“I want to recruit people to join, because the top-ranked class will earn their assistant teacher a thousand teaching points. That’s really important to me, so… can I invite you two to participate?”
“Hmm… that competition, huh…”
The purple-haired jellyfish-headed big sister propped her chin in her hand and thought for a moment, then turned to look at Sylvia next to her.
The elven girl showed a troubled expression and after a while, she spoke up on her own:
“If we participate, won’t it seem a little strange? I mean, just coming to the preparatory class is probably already outside the norm in a lot of people’s eyes.”
“If we show up in the arena, with so many people from the school watching, standing next to all those fifteen or sixteen-year-old students will make us even more conspicuous. It’ll probably cause trouble, and it might even drag you down with us, Keti.”
“There’s no need to worry about that! Because Lynn already pointed out a solution. First, you’re all registered students, so joining the competition is totally within the rules.”
“And… he said I should figure something out, and I think I actually have a way that will let you participate without standing out too much…”
As she spoke, Keti suddenly pulled a small blue potion from her pocket and declared with absolute confidence:
“This is a very special potion I found by frantically searching the library’s ancient books! The raw ingredients are so rare… Uh, Lynn had to spend a lot of money to get a little bit, and I was able to make just this one small bottle! What do you think?”
“At least it shows I’m still trying my best to figure out how to turn back into a boy, right?”
“Mmm~! Keti, you’re amazing~ Mom is so happy~!”
Whenever Keti mentioned she was still working hard to find a way to turn back, the purple-haired jellyfish-headed big sister immediately lit up with happiness.
Ahem… but Keti wasn’t focused on that at the moment!
She gave a light cough and continued:
“That’s not the main point… since there still hasn’t been any further progress! Ahem… But this potion is kind of an unexpected bonus.”
“Its effect is that after drinking it, you’ll temporarily become your adolescent self, hmm… you’ll look about ten years younger, I guess. Layla-ne, if you became ten years younger, you’d be about fifteen or sixteen, right?”
“Ah… ha… hahahaha… Ugh… Mom is all old and faded, sorry, Keti, Mom really wants to be a pretty seventeen-year-old girl again, ugh~”
“Oh, no, no, I didn’t mean to say you’re old, Layla-ne, you’re still really young! It’s just… well, objectively speaking, the facts are right there, it’s just that…”
Ah… Keti helplessly rubbed her head. Th-this…
It looks like she just stepped on a big landmine—A woman’s age!